but everything we're seeing from the white house and president obama in his messaging and in his trip to pennsylvania on friday suggest that they believe they have the upper hand. they want the negotiations to begin with the allowing the tax breaks for the wealthiest americans to expire. and as doug said, it's true ta public opinion is on their side. public opinion overwhelmingly favors getting rid of the tax breaks for the top 2%. so i think what the white house believes is that the compromise and other areas. not on that topic. >> i want to move on to our next topic, which is burning questions. i'm going to pull a line if the latest article. the quote is some lawmakers will even be greeted with revelers singing politically themed christmas carols in the coming weeks. here's my question, what do you mean? >> that was an article about what some of the liberal groups that support the white house are doing to help push his position on the negotiations over the fiscal cliff. and so what's happening is that you've got groups all over the country, making phone calls, canvassing, getting ou